Bishop Athenagoras of Belgium and Exarch of the Netherlands and Luxembourg presided over the Divine Liturgy at the Parish of St. Andrew the Apostle in Ghent on Sunday of Myrrh-Bearers, May 8, 2022.
Bishop Joachim of Apollonia co-officiated the service, and clergymen from the Metropolis and from the Georgian Church in Belgium participated in the service.
In his sermon, the Bishop referred to the love and faith of the Myrrh-bearing women towards Christ and the living of this faith through actions in their lives.
At the end of the Divine Liturgy, a memorial service was held for the late Protopresbyter Ignatios Peckstadt, as well as for the Bishop Joachim of Apollonia, who died in the same year and on the same day.
At the end of the memorial service, the Metropolitan thanked those who came to honor the memory of the aforementioned fathers, especially in the Easter season, giving the message of the hope of the resurrection of the entire human race.
After the end of the Divine Liturgy and the Memorial Service, a treat was provided in the spiritual center of the parish.
Fr. Ignatios was a prominent lawyer in Belgium in his time, who together with the former Bishop of Belgium, Bishop Panteleimon, did much for the recognition of the Orthodox Church by the Belgian State. Fr. Ignatios was himself a clergyman, who founded the Parish of St. Andrew the Apostle in Ghent and offered his two sons and one son-in-law to the Church as clergymen.
